


Unto Others

by inkandchocolate



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-24
Updated: 2010-05-24
Packaged: 2017-10-09 17:00:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkandchocolate/pseuds/inkandchocolate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once an addict, always an addict. For Riley, though, some addictions are more dangerous than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unto Others

**Author's Note:**

> Written for maleslashminis Minor Character Round for whichclothes. The prompt was for "angst, hurt/comfort, lawsuits" – which I hope I managed to get for you.Mad beta love to tessarae_ for her guidance, editing skills and generosity. All mistakes are mine, not hers.

It's like a bad dream that won't end. The courtroom. The jury. The judge. The gawkers in the audience who stare hard enough that Riley can feel their judgment through the center of his chest. The suit he feels strapped into, the tie that is strangling him: every single piece of this experience is playing like a waking nightmare.

Including the fact that the man on the other side of this case knows him better than anyone ever has.

\--------

They'd met outside a house known to offer a special service to men with special needs, and it had nothing to do with getting naked. The men in the rooms in this house were interested in something much more intimate than sex. For Riley, it was odd enough to run into a human outside of the nest who recognized him for what he was, an addict. Odder still to meet those blue eyes and feel a thrill that had nothing to do with the thought of the little blonde vamp who'd just drunk from his arm. It was enough to make Riley slip around the corner and wait for the man with the startling blue eyes and the smirking grin.

If Lindsey knew that the tall soldier was waiting in the shadows, he didn't appear that way to Riley. He left the house with no evidence of his reason for the visit showing, tie just slightly askew, hands in his pockets. Riley watched him from a block back as Lindsey hit the bar up the street, almost walking past it before going inside. There was a beer in front of him when Riley walked in the door, a shot to keep it company not long after that. By the time Riley had his own beer, the man with the pretty mouth was on his second shot, smiling down at the dregs in his glass and then at Riley himself.

Soldiers are wary by nature, and those that want to keep on living don't take things at face value. That instinct made Riley slower to respond than a man who looked like Lindsey was probably used to. Even so, the end game was inescapable once the smile turned into a casual invitation to pull up a chair at a table that was just a little too small. A few more beers and a couple of shots each, the subtle pressure of a surprisingly hard-muscled thigh, and Riley was talking too much and couldn't seem to drag his eyes away from Lindsey McDonald's mouth. They ended up in Riley's hotel room, with Riley naked and sweating and not at all bothered by the fact that Lindsey was a pushy bastard when it came to sex. Pushy but generous with his dick and his hands and mouth, and when he rolled over and left long before sunrise, Riley stretched and yawned and went back to sleep, and didn't wake up until noon.

It turned into a pattern for them both - pretending to meet at that vamp nest, pretending to be surprised at the timing. The one thing they never pretended about was the way that they fit each other, in every sense – that, and the impossibility of their relationship. They never once pretended it could work out well for them.

\-------

Lindsey watches the jury and he sees them wanting to find the truth. He's got an almost impossible case here, trying to convince them that the tall, blonde, all-American boy there, who has a sterling record of service to the United States military and enough meritorious recommendations from his commanding officers to choke a damn horse, has lied to them on the stand about his client brutally murdering a young girl in an alley in an area known for gang activity and almost taking her head off in the process.

Hell, Lindsey has lied more times than he can count, convinced more juries that his clients are innocent - veritable saints - but standing in front of Riley as the representative for Wolfram and Hart is harder than Lindsey ever thought anything would be. Harder than realizing Darla never wanted him. Harder than realizing that Riley does. Harder than understanding that he wants Riley just as much.

But there's a job to do, and Lindsey has no choice here, not really. He can do his best here to discredit the star witness, or he can fuck it up, possibly sign his own death warrant with the firm. Either way he's losing, and for once he's not entirely sure he wants to make the logical choice.

He clears his throat, touches his tie, smiles at the jury. Looks at them all sitting there, meets their eyes, reads the way they respond to him. But all he can think about is the way the bump of the bone on Riley's shoulder feels under his fingertips, the way Riley's mouth opens under his own, and his chest aches at the thought of never having that again.

Lindsey turns from the jury and finds himself staring at Riley up there in the box, sitting tall and straight, looking like the son every mother dreams of raising. He can't blink, can't breathe, can't speak for heartbeat after heartbeat. But the nod that Riley gives him is what he needs now, release from his indecision and assurance that no matter what happens here today, it's just a job.

Riley's done that job, too.

Lindsey's never been so free.

-end-


End file.
